A lash technician accepted a last minute appointment. Woke Up Days Later, Poisoned by Cheesecake (Exclusive)

HE NEEDS TO KNOW

• The latest episode of The curious case of… tells the story of eyelash technician Olga Tsvyk, who was poisoned by a customer who brought her a slice of stained cheesecake.

• The client, Viktoria Nasyrova, was arrested on March 20, 2017

• The episode premieres on January 19 on ID

Eyelash technician Olga Tsvyk accepted a last-minute request to do a client’s eyelashes, but what happened next haunted her for years.

The latest episode of season two of ID’s The curious case of… the series is called “The Killer Cheesecake”. It tells the story of Tsvyk, who said she was poisoned by a client who brought her a slice of stained cheesecake when she arrived for her cosmetic treatment.

The client, Viktoria Nasyrova, turned out to be an alleged Russian fugitive and wanted to assume an identity “similar” to Tsvyk’s, Tsvyk claimed. Nasyrova — who was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, attempted first-degree assault, second-degree assault, first-degree unlawful imprisonment and petty theft in 2023 — denied poisoning Tsvyk.

The episode, which premieres on January 19, features plenty of twists and turns as the victims and the legal team reminisce about the 2016 case.

Tsvyk, who was 35 at the time, was working as an eyelash esthetician when he met Nasyrova through one of her clients. Tsvyk received an urgent request from Nasyrova to perform an eyelash treatment. Nasyrova claimed she was about to go on vacation.

Tsvyk, who was born in Ukraine and lives in Queens, NY, arranged for Nasyrova to meet her at her home on August 28, 2016. Nasyrova insisted on bringing a cheesecake “from a bakery in Brooklyn” to the meeting, Tsyvk claimed.

Tsvyk says in the documentary that Nasyrova brought home several pieces of cheesecake. She started eating two pieces and left one for Tsvyk, who ate the slice. “It wasn’t as delicious as advertised before,” she recalls.

Tsvyk immediately felt nauseous and vomited on the floor after eating the dessert. Her last memory was when Nasyrova brought her paper towels to clean up the mess.

Tsvyk was eventually found by salon owner Stella Stepanyan, who became concerned and went to Tsvyk’s home after he didn’t show up for work, Stepanyan explains in a clip shared exclusively to PEOPLE. He found his employee lying on a bed in her underwear and surrounded by pills.

At the hospital, Tsvyk tested negative for narcotics. He was in a stupor for about three days and needed assistance returning home.

Tsvyk later reported to the police that thousands of dollars, her purse, clothes, passport and work visa were missing, and that’s when the New York Police Department got involved. (Other valuables, including a gold ring, were also missing, officials said.)

Former detective Kevin Rodgers recalls receiving two calls about a suspected burglary on Sept. 2, 2016. As he uncovered the details — which, he claimed, included Tsvyk’s room at 107 degrees when she was found and the remote control to adjust the heater thrown under her bed — he became increasingly concerned.

“Someone intentionally turned up the heat until the end of August in New York and didn’t want anyone to turn it off,” Rodgers speculates in the episode.

Shortly thereafter, a second alleged victim of Nasyrova emerged. Queens resident Ruben Buruhkov claimed he met Nasyrova, who allegedly went by the name Anna, on a Russian dating site. She invites him to her house for dinner, and he remembers feeling “something was wrong” after a few bites of the meal.

He claimed that Nasyrova proceeded to steal it and drop it off at the store she owns, with Nasyrova suggesting to colleagues that she must have been drinking too much or using drugs that evening and reported the allegations to the police. (He later testified to these allegations in Nasyrova’s trial over the cheesecake incident.)

After Rodgers received the second report, he discovered an arrest warrant for Nasyrova in Russia, where she was wanted for the alleged murder of a woman.

The story continues with an account of private investigator Herman Weisberg, who was hired by Nadia Ford, the daughter of Nasyrova’s late Russian neighbor. (Ford’s mother was the woman who was killed under suspicious circumstances.) Legal analyst Beth Karas also provides commentary.

Rodgers and Tsvyk located the container of cheesecake that Nasyrova had brought to Tsvyk’s home, and tests revealed traces of phenazepam. The sedative is not usually tested because it cannot be obtained legally in the United States.

Phenazepam can be fatal if one’s body temperature exceeds a certain temperature, which raised the potential offense from grand larceny to attempted murder.

Nasyrova was arrested on March 20, 2017 and eventually sentenced to 21 years in prison for poisoning Tsvyk and stealing his ID. Upon eventual release, she will be subject to five years of supervision.

“A ruthless and calculating con artist is serving a long time in prison for trying to kill her way to profit and personal gain. Fortunately, the victim survived the attack on her life and we were able to bring her justice,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement at the time.

Prosecutor Dino Litourgis says in the documentary that he hopes Nasyrova will be extradited to Russia to “face justice in that system” after her release.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to keep up with everything PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Karas reached out to Nasyrova for comment, but she declined an unpaid interview.

She did, however, do interviews with New York Postand in 2023, she told the outlet that she sold 3D art in prison and continued to insist on her innocence.

The Curious Case of… The Killer Cheesecake? premieres January 19 at 10pm ET on ID, with new episodes airing weekly. Episodes will be available to stream on HBO Max.

Read the original article on People